Strangers Again?

With Us or Against Us?

The next day, I had work, and after a relatively chill day at school, I was headed to work. I was looking forward to it, as Natalie told me she was also working that night, which excited me truthfully. She was the closing cashier, and I was working closing stock, naturally providing plenty of opportunities to talk, making me happy. 

As I walked in, I saw her as she started work before me. Seeing how she interacted with customers with the same kindness and gentle tone in her voice and her beautiful smile made me feel a particular way deep in my heart.

And as these feelings kept piling up, with situations as little as just seeing her in person, it started to make me slowly realize that maybe, I was falling for Natalie romantically. As the start of the shift passed, I was doing the regular tasks that come with a stocking at night time, doing a sweep of the store, focusing on filling up the coolers we have at the front of the store, and also checking the aisle where we keep all the toilet paper/paper products and female hygiene items as well. 

Once all of these were done for the night, I had to cover the cosmetician, which isn't too stressful, and that was the case for this one, which was nice. Then I came up to cover the customer service which can be stressful if a bunch of people come up to the desk for various reasons.

But to my luck, that night was practically dead regarding how lively the store was with customers, so it opened up the opportunity to talk to Natalie who was right in front of the desk at her cash till. What surprised me was that she took the initiative and approached me at the desk, making my heart race and skip a beat. 

"Hey Grant, how's work been and how are you doing today?" Natalie asked me, with the iconic smile that always found a way to make me smile back which is something I've never felt before. 

"Haha, hey Natalie work's been good so far thank you, and I'm doing well thanks! How about you, I'm surprised you came up to the desk to talk; what if a customer comes up?" I managed to get out, while inside feeling so nervous about being around her which further made me believe that I at least had some romantic feelings for her, at a crush level. But truthfully, it also made me feel like there was a greater chance that this was more than just a small crush since I reacted so differently around Natalie.

"Happy to hear that Grant; it's going well, and work's even better since you're here! I was disappointed when I didn't see you listed to work the night before, so I'm happy to see you." She responded, which took me aback since I did not expect to hear that from her. It only made me more nervous, and my heart rate increased dramatically. 

Unfortunately, some customers went up to her cashier till so she had to hurry back, but not without saying a quick bye for now and giving her smile to me :) 

After my break and I went outside to do the carts and finished that up, I was able to finish all of the things pretty early, around an hour before closing time. I used the extra time to help organize the ends of each aisle, which were supposed to be very organized and neat, I ran into Natalie in one of the aisles. Sometimes, cashiers go out onto the floor and return items from customers. And that day was one of the lucky ones for me. 

Practically for the last hour, I tried to get some work done, but I just was caught talking to her and talking about our favourite chocolates and candies out of all things. But this is why I felt so strongly attracted to Natalie. At first, it was just a curiosity as to who she was as a person, to now just being attracted to her personality and genuine kindness mainly, beyond the surface-level thoughts and feelings of how beautiful she looked physically. 

One particular thing stuck out to me about the night when we waited for everyone to come to the front to leave the store. After some arguments about comical things like which candy is better Smarties or M&M's to give an example, Natalie just couldn't let it go. And dropped this line that encapsulates everything for me. 

"So Grant, what will it be, Smarties or M&M's? You're either with or against us, this matters if we're going to be friends." She remarked, that I didn't care much for which one was better, but I knew she preferred M&M's so I gave her that answer.

But, saying that I didn't care what was the correct answer wasn't to say that this didn't matter. What it did show me is how I could just easily get caught up in silly debates like this, spend a lot of time talking about things I usually wouldn't even bother to talk about and not care because what mattered the most was spending time with her at that moment. 

I didn't admit it then, but that was the night and moment when I said to myself that I loved Natalie, for many reasons that will be clarified further soon :). And I wished that even if things didn't work out romantically, at least this I hoped stayed because I was just happy around her.


Author's Note: I appreciate you following along if you have gotten this far. And the song I put up, if you want to listen to it after reading this chapter, it might give you a better idea of how things will continue to progress...

Love the support, it means a lot to me always :)